By now you've probably heard that astronomers have announced the existence of "Earth-mass world in orbit around Proxima Centauri." As in any scientific discovery, there are a lot of caveats and careful hedging of the announcement, but this appears to be legit. And just in time for the 20th anniversary of The Sparrow!
I'm getting lots of tweets and email from readers about this, including messages from astronomers who are fans of the novel. Dr. Tim Hankins, former site director of the Arecibo Observatory, was especially kind, saying that the discovery "reinforces how much you got right in The Sparrow and ...Read More

Many thanks to all of you who took time to vote for Epitaph as the Ohioana Readers Choice. Not only did you nail that one down for me, your enthusiasm for the novel was matched by the professional judges who also gave the novel the 2015 Best Fiction prize.
The award ceremony will be at the Ohio State House on September 23 and I'll be a guest at the 2017 Ohioana Book Festival on April 8 as well.
Recognition like this doesn't guarantee that my next novel will be published -- every book is a separate roll of the dice -- but ...Read More

I'd appreciate it if you take the time to vote for Epitaph, which is one of thirty books up for the first annual Readers Choice Award from the Ohioana Library Association. There are no categories -- fiction, nonfiction, childrens' lit, etc. are all in a bunch. You can only vote once per computer and you can only click once before it tosses you off! Thanks!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RR3YML2 ...Read More

A while back, I posted about what might well be a photograph of Doc Holliday taken shortly before his death from tuberculosis. Whoever that poor soul really was, his neck is neatly wrapped in white cloth. It was not a fashion statement; it was a bandage. It covered the kind of open sores that can result from TB-infected glands, but its resemblance to the male neck wear of the Romantic period is not accidental.
It is hard to overestimate the impact of tuberculosis in the 1700-1800s. The disease itself is as old as human history, but it became epidemic in Europe ...Read More

This review is difficult for me to write. It might also be difficult for you to read. Try to imagine, then, how difficult it must have been for Joanna Connors to write I Will Find You.
That title is a perfect encapsulation of the book's theme, structure, elegance, horror and grace. In 1984, when she was a 30-year-old reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Connors was raped at knife-point by a stranger. When he was finished with her, the rapist warned, "If you go to the police, I will find you." That is also what she decided twenty years after the ...Read More

Once again, I'm turning to you for help with the next novel. An Unremembered Life (yes, new working title) is the story of Annie Clements, who was once known around the world as America's Joan of Arc. This extraordinary 25-year-old woman was a pivotal figure in the labor movement of the Progressive Age. In 1913, she led a strike that shut down 20 copper mines for nearly a year in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Obviously, there are few (if any) people who remember those days directly, but I'm hoping some of you have family memories of strikes that have been passed down ...Read More

Readers often suggest books I should write. My standard reply is, "Well, arranged marriages can work nicely for some folks, but I have to fall in love on my own."
When I'm almost finished with a novel, I start dating again. I read promiscuously and watch a lot of documentaries on the History Channel and PBS and Smithsonian -- the literary equivalent of hanging around in a bar.
If there's a spark, I begin to accumulate a library on the topic and see if it can sustain my interest. Often the story just doesn't catch fire for me. A few years ago, ...Read More